Email this article to a friend

Lazard and Goldman Sachs have emerged with advisory roles on one of the year’s biggest foreign takeovers of a US company.

iStock

Wall Street firms Lazard and Goldman Sachs are handling one of 2016's biggest foreign takeovers of a US company

French dairy company Danone will acquire WhiteWave Foods, a Colorado-based organic foods business, in a deal worth $12.5 billion, according to a joint announcement from the companies on July 7.

Lazard is sole adviser to Danone, a Lazard spokesman confirmed. Goldman Sachs is advising WhiteWave, according to people familiar with the deal.

At $12.5 billion, the acquisition is the third-largest takeover of a US company by a foreign acquirer so far in 2016, according to analysis of data from Dealogic.

It comes just behind TransCanada Corp’s $13.2 billion purchase of Columbia Pipeline Group, on which Lazard and Goldman Sachs advised the target.

The largest foreign offer for a US company registered by Dealogic in 2016 is German life sciences company Bayer’s $62 billion bid for Monsanto, which was rejected, although the firms remain in talks.

Danone’s latest acquisition is the also second-largest M&A deal by a European acquirer in 2016 behind Bayer’s move for Monsanto.

Neither Lazard nor Goldman Sachs has yet been given credit for the deal by Dealogic. Goldman Sachs already ranks first for global announced M&A, according to the data provider, while Lazard ranks 11th, having worked on $125 billion-worth of deals.

Related

The Danone deal will not take Lazard past Deutsche Bank into the top 10 advisers, as the German bank has handled $143.7 billion-worth of deals in 2016.

Lazard’s team on the Danone deal comprises Alex Stern, its chief executive of financial advisory, Maxence de Gennaro, co-head of North American consumer and retail investment banking, Paris-based managing directors Stephane Droulers and Isabelle Xoual, and New York-based MDs Evan Russo and Tomer Perry, according to the spokesman.

Lazard’s past advisory mandates from Danone include advising on the €13.7 billion acquisition of Dutch baby food company Royal Numico and the $7 billion sale of a biscuits business to Kraft Foods.

At Goldman Sachs, bankers involved in the deal include co-chairman of global M&A Tim Ingrassia, managing directors David Eisman and Peter Brundage, and vice-president Andy Bowman, according to a person familiar with the situation.

UPDATE: This story has been updated with details of the Goldman Sachs bankers involved on the deal